These last few Playups have had more games on show than ever before. The last After Dark session had eight games (eight!) going at once, and we had to get two people just to cover them all! This time there were six games on offer, so we migrated over to Carpe Coffee and packed the room with as many people as possible, including kids! There were games from previous Playups and unique newcomers, but everyone was willing to give some feedback to the devs or chill out with a latte and talk about game design. There was only one game I didn’t get my hands on, but with so many games to try, I was hardly surprised!

Aliensche

The first game I tried out was Aliensche, a side-on game where you abduct cows in a UFO for (presumably) SCIENCE! The aim is to get as many cows from the ground into your mother UFO via a drop-down claw without being killed by soldiers firing rockets at you. While it’s a lot like a reversed version of Missile Command, the twist makes it a really unique, and it’s also dangerously addictive. It was easy to jump on and nuanced enough to keep me back to try and beat my own score, and even when I didn’t, the game was weird enough to keep me amused anyway.

Blitz Bandits

Channelling the golden days of when Game Boys ruled the streets, Blitz Banditz played like a free-for-all version of Contra with a taste for capitalism. The idea is to make $100 before you opponent by grabbing moneybags, holding onto valuable gems and shooting your opponent in the face! Like Alienische, Blitz Bandits was easy to pick up and play while still having that “one more time” quality to it. I was run over by that damn train way too many times, but the game was a great little party number that I’d be keen to play over and over again.

Verbivore

If you’ve ever felt like snake needed something more, Verbivore’s a game to keep your eye on. Instead of just squirming around eating pellets, you eat letters to construct words. The more words you make, the more points you get, but the game was still too rough to really get a grasp of. The letters that spawned didn’t necessarily make words, and the controls were borderline unresponsive, but it’s still a great idea at its core. I’m looking forward to seeing it later down the line once the kinks get sorted and seeing what other mechanics get fed into it!

Rogue Blitz

I couldn’t personally play Rogue Blitz, but I got a glimpse at the new and improved visual aspect of the game. Last time I played it, the game required the players to extrapolate where certain weapons fired without any visuals aids, but that’s changed now with the addition of missile pieces, laser rulers and all the cardboard things! I would have killed to be able to use them, but from what I saw, they definitely helped remove the ambiguity my group had the last time we played.

Bloc

Bloc’s become somewhat of a regular showing at Playups these days, and the progress that’s been made on it is evident. This time round, Eeshwar was doing a blind testing, which meant that he couldn’t explain the rules to anyone playing the game. Thing is, even I messed up on the rules, and I’ve played almost every iteration of it at past Playups. The game itself works beautifully, it’s just that the rules need some clarification, and knowing Eeshwar, it’ll be done by the next Playup!

Super Salmon Migration

When I first tried Super Salmon Migration, I thought it was just a rip off of that old Helicopter game. It more or less is, but there was a bouncing mechanic that piqued my interest. The aim is to migrate your salmon as far as possible, but sometimes you need to jump out of the water onto passing logs or rocks to keep going. I thought that the mechanic itself could be utilised more, but it was a really interesting twist on the old Helicopter format. Add a store in there (filled with coloured boxes!) and it looked like a promising mobile time-waster!

After three hours that felt like 20 minutes, Playup came to an end yet again. It seems that the more Playups I go to, the higher the calibre of local games I see, which is really exciting considering that we’re seeing more every time! A huge thanks to Carpe Coffee for providing the venue, and if you want to know when the next Playup is happening, it should be announced very soon.

Eight games doesn’t sound like a huge number until you see them all in the same room, but it’s even crazier when you realise that one of them is a gameshow! This was the biggest Playup so far; it was so big that I’d call it more of a mini-con than a playtest session. We had games that were already released, games that were barely in their infancy and even a whole bunch of kickass shirts for sale. Playing every game in the few hours we had was practically impossible, so I enlisted the help of Will Kirk (Editor-in-Chief over at Gamecloud) for his help in the writeup to make sure no game was left behind.

Time Chasers

Nick: I’ve always liked heading down to the pub for a trivia night with a bunch of friends who know as little about geography as I do, so testing out a game show sounded right up my alley. Instead of being played with points, Time Chasers is all about adding time to your own clock to make it through each round and be the last man standing. It played a bit like You Don’t Know Jack but with more racing against the clock, and while my trivia knowledge is still embarrassing, the game was great fun once you got the hang of it. I was especially a fan of how the game never lost tension as it went on, because no matter how far ahead you were, time always works against you, but in a fun way!

Doomsday Convention

Will: Tabletop is an area of gaming that I’m still relatively noobish with apart from way too much experience with Settlers of Catan, but there are two things I know I enjoy: resource management and ‘dogging’ any players that get in my way. Doomsday Convention is a new game from COGZ creator, Wes Lamont, and one which strongly incorporates those two qualities. Using a board built around resource collection and modifiers, the aim of the game is to move two units around (an evil genius and a minion) in order to fill up three resource cards as precisely as possible. Only you know what you require for each card, and at the end you will be penalised for going under or over any particular resource. Using modifiers, you can strategically work to earn optimal results for yourself or throw other player’s plans into chaos.

Overall, the game already flows very well once you get your head around it. The biggest problems are a board which can barely fit the pieces and some messy scoring calculation at the end. I look forward to seeing how it progresses!

Scavenge the Wastes

Nick: Everyone groaned when Brett, the creator of the game, likened Scavenge The Wastes to Fluxx, but he did mitigate it with “Don’t worry, unlike Fluxx, it’s not terrible”. Scavenge The Wastes is a card drafting game where you build up a post-apocalypse settlement through drawing and playing cards from a shared deck. I played a slightly modified version later into the night that was a bit more fast-moving than previous versions, so the game lasted a very digestible 10 minutes. Brett was pretty forthcoming about the game being in a broken state, which I’d have to agree with, but everyone I played with agreed that it was still better than Fluxx. I’m definitely interested to see how it changes in the future, and hopefully it’ll crop up at future Playups.

Star Hammer: The Vanguard Prophecy

Will: While not my favourite genre given the time investment that’s usually involved, I still have a great respect for both the RTS and space sim genres. I love sci-fi, so I definitely find this particular sub-genre interesting and feel generally clued in on what’s going on. Last weekend was the first time I personally got to go hands on with Star Hammer, and it was something I enjoyed as I chatted away with Lead Designer, Paul Turbett about his influences and approach to game development. Out of all the Perth-titles I’ve played, it’s definitely the one I feel most steps beyond the banner of ‘indie game’ to hold itself within the genre as a full-fledged experience. It’s clear budget restraints held back its full potential with the storytelling, in particular, but Star Hammer is still a fantastic example of the potential within our local industry.

Mr Nibbles forever

Nick: While a lot of games shown off at Playup Perth are completely new, Mr Nibbles Forever is actually a sequel of the mobile game Mr Nibbles. The game is a side-scroller about a hamster making his way through his enclosure, and the more you tilt your device, the faster he goes. Everything in it was suitably adorable, and there were more costumes in it than a living doll store, but it was a surprisingly tricky game! You had to be spot on with your movements to get all the collectables strewn across the level, not to mention avoiding the enemies, but it made the game a lot more enjoyable than I expected it to be.

Fart Surfer

Will: The title ‘Fart Surfer’ wasn’t exactly something that captured my interest at first glance, but maybe that’s just a sign I’m getting old and rigid. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised by the build quality and challenge once I went hands-on with the game itself. In many ways, it reminded me of Perth’s own Space Strafer in combination with the addictive nature of the highly controversial Flappy Bird. As the debut title from Pete Phillips and his new studio 1984 Games, Fart Surfer has a visually appealing design that works well in combination with some catchy tracks. There are multiple difficulty settings and greater obstacles to overcome with each new level. Running on both PC and mobile, it’s just challenging enough for a casual demographic to enjoy and the theme will no doubt sit well with younger players.

Seen below is me focusing very hard on playing a game which is quite literally powered by farts. Look out for it soon!

A.G.E.

Nick: It’s cool to see that more and more people are embracing VR games as the technology evolves, and A.G.E. offers another perspective on VR development. The idea behind A.G.E. is that it’s an educational game about history, but the player can explore historical environments throughout history to give them a better sense of how the site has evolved through time. The site on show was the Parthenon, which could be explored in four different states of time. There wasn’t much to it, but the idea reminded me a lot of an old Dorling Kindersley game I was obsessed with as a kid. It’s a unique idea that could go in a whole bunch of directions, so I’m keen to see it develop!

Rogue Blitz

Will: When I first spotted Rogue Blitz, I was both excited and overwhelmed – as I mentioned earlier, I’m a bit vanilla when it comes to tabletop gaming. However, like every game I’ve tried before it, once I got my head around the rules, I had an excellent time. In fact, this was without a doubt my favourite experience of the night as I’ve never played anything quite like it. Except for the video games it’s inspired by, of course. Basically, Rogue Blitz is a tabletop take on vertical scrolling shooters such as the classic Raiden. It’s not something I thought could work in a physical form, but creator, Wes Lamont already has it in a functional state; though it still requires refinement to make the gameplay more fluent. What I especially enjoyed about it was getting to play co-operatively with other players in order to take down a boss.

You generally feel good about a game when you walk away a winner, and while we only managed to defeat the first boss as a team, we had a lot of co-op fun in the process as we worked it out together. Keep an eye out for this one!

As far as Playups go, I’d have to say that was one of the best so far! There was a huge variety of games on offer, from mobile to gameshow, and the quality of what was being plated up was phenomenal. If you’re unaware of what’s happening in the local scene, Playup Perth can offer a great insight into some great stuff that’s being developed, and you might get a nice surprise when you find a cool game that’s being made right here! A huge thanks to SK Games for hosting, and Will for helping us cover all the games, and keep your eyes peeled for the next Playup TBA soon…

Chaos theory has been adopted by plenty of books and films about parks filled with dinosaurs over the years, but in my eyes, the best way to explore it is in games. A game can give you a simple set of rules that turn into a complex minefield of deep strategy and forethought within a couple of turns, and it can really make use of the butterfly effect in interesting ways. Of course, striking the balance between elegant and oversimple is what game design is all about, and almost all the games at this Playup were aiming for that sweet spot. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to play all the games on show, but that doesn’t mean I was ignoring the games altogether, but we’ll get to that!

Flip Flop

Keeping it small and deceptive was Eeshwar Rajagopalan’s Flip Flop, a two-player game about territory and shape-making. The last time I saw Flip Flop was at Playup 5, and it’s obvious that the game’s had an overhaul based on the feedback it received. The small board was still there, but the focus has shifted from cascading flips to positioning an agent and controlling token colours on the board. If you can make a shape out of your colour that matches a card on the table and your agent is in it, you get points. It’s great to see these changes, especially because they work so well.

As it stands, the mechanics are solid enough that Eeshwar could release the game right now. The rules were so simple that newcomers could pick up and play it but offered enough depth for a satisfying amount of challenge. The addition of the agent made all the difference, since it allowed me to draw my focus to specific regions of the board instead of having to take the whole board in at once. The only thing the game really needs now is balancing.

Due to the simplicity of the rules, the scoring system was a little broken. When you made any shape apart from a line, you could score one point, but a line would get you three. Getting the line was difficult, but I managed to get it, and from that point on, the game was mine. There was no way that I could be beaten, which made the game less tense for me and my opponent, but that was the only real problem with the game! The improvements made since I played Thirtysix have really helped it evolve, and I’m really glad Eeshwar has listened to the feedback to improve the game!

Newfoundland

Rolling with the evolving complexity approach was Alex and Chris’ Newfoundland, a settlement game with a board that took up an entire table. I would love to describe exactly what the game was about, but a playthrough took a few hours, so there was only one group that got to try it for the whole Playup session. The game was explained to me by the devs though, so I did understand some of the core mechanics involved. The most important one that I saw was the way that players were broken into the rules.

Despite the huge board size, the game introduced players to the rules as the game progressed. Tiles were put on the board in player’s turns, so the rules only came up as they were needed, and there was no laborious set-up beforehand. The game was so easy to grasp that the kids playing it weren’t phased by the hugeness of the board. Apart from thinking this was an ingenious way to design a game of this size, once it got going, everyone still had a firm grasp of what was happening.

The board went from barren to seemingly incomprehensible in the space of an hour, but what surprised me was that none of the players (including the kids) were overwhelmed. The slow break-in meant that what looked like utter chaos from the outside was perfectly reasonable to someone playing the game. On top of that, the size of the board meant that the simplicity of the rules could be taken to logical extremes, which is always awesome to watch unfold. I would have loved to give it a go myself, but hopefully we see it again at a future Playup!

Pyrrhic

The other entry from Alex and Chris was a decidedly more traditional game that shared many traits with Newfoundland. Introduced to me as their “wargame offering”, Pyrrhic is all about positioning your troops and utilising terrain. Again, I wasn’t able to play the game since it took at least an hour to play, but I had a very close eye on one playthrough. It shared the same tile placement system as Newfoundland but opted for a troop deployment system before the game began. While it wasn’t quite as newbie friendly as their other game, Pyrrhic was still accessible to anyone willing to try it out.

Both games Alex and Chris offered seemed to go with the ‘simple rules done big’ mentality. Pyrrhic had four pages of rules that were easier to wrap your head around than an episode of Parks and Rec, and this was the game that was meant to be more complex. Pyrrhic required a bit more investment, but the basic ideas of laying down terrain as the game progressed and playing on a huge board were carried across. It was all very quick to learn and easy to play, so the next step is to appeal to veteran wargamers.

While I can appreciate the straightforward rules, there’s room to give players more freedom in how they enter the game. Pre-made armies are great for beginners to absorb the rules, but old wargamers like myself like to have a bit more control over our army’s composition. There’s already very little set-up for the game, and the base is solid, so the devs should think about rules that add a bit more nuance and player control to the game to attract those who want something a bit meatier. I wanted to try it out quite badly, but alas, time wasn’t on my side.

This Playup was a bit like looking at different ways to approach the same challenge of balancing complexity with simplicity. Some were big, some were small, but they all brought something to the table. I may not have been able to try out half the games, but I’m hoping I get to see them come back for future Playups!

Social games are a rare experience here in Perth. It’s not often that something like an escape room shows up, and it probably goes without saying that this is true of past playups too. Playups usually have a bunch of different games in the room that don’t take too long to try out, but this time was a little different. First, we had a special venue: Carpe Coffee, which was generously kept open late just for us. Second, instead of getting as many devs into the room as possible, the evening focused on Anthony Sweet’s Mafioso-inspired work in progress: Grand City. Controllers were traded for conversations and the smell of betrayal was in the air (as well as a good dose of upbeat jazz), and it was evident that Anthony got plenty of ideas from watching our organised crimes pan out.

The basic premise of Grand City is that the players are Al Capone wannabes in 1930s Chicago, vying for a place in one of three big families. The game was introduced to us, by Anthony, as an eclectic mix of smaller games that came together through socialising and, uh, murder. There was a little card trading, some territory control and a whole bunch of other mechanics that fed into who you talked to and who you, uh, murdered. With that in mind, I donned my new persona of Allegra DeLinguini and started grovelling to the first head honcho I could find.

After the basic mechanics were explained, three family bosses were chosen, each appointing a right hand man/woman. From there, it was up to each player to get chatting, pick sides and complete tasks for the bosses to try and earn respect for the family. The trick was that the bosses couldn’t get their hands dirty, so it was up to the underlings to do their organised bidding. Of course, the underlings might want to rise up, and there were plenty of freedom in the game to let someone gang up on someone higher up, or pull off something even more devious.

About an hour into the game, people started noticing two unaligned criminals making a name for themselves. I had to act before they started getting a little too much respect to be dealt with, so I started planning out a hit. No one really understood how a hit was carried out, but this was organised crime, and I had a card up my sleeve. Literally; I had a Contract Hit card, but I wasn’t sure how it worked. If was there was one thing that needed improvement, it was the way game mechanics were explained to players, but there was a lot of fun to be had in having secrets floating around the room.

The word was spreading that a hit was being planned, but who exactly was getting hit wasn’t out yet. Paranoia was in the air, and it didn’t help that these two unaligned crims owned more cards than everyone else combined. At the rate they were going, they were on their way to declaring themselves a new family… Which they did. It wasn’t that we were told that we could make a new family, but Anthony was more than happy to accommodate a new lineage of organised crime. I really enjoyed that fluffiness of the rules, since it also allowed me to kill off poor old Glen (pictured below, post-death) after a sneaky last-minute target change.

… Trust me, he was way cheerier after I killed him.

It wasn’t easy watching the life fade from another man’s eyes, but the respect I’d earned for the family made it a bit easier to gloat about. Glen may have been sleeping with the fishes, but the original problem still remained. The two card-hoarders were cementing themselves as the new unofficial family to look out for, and no one else was willing to rub them the wrong way. So, some of the families started bargaining with the powerhouse duo to try and get the game moving again.

See, the new family wasn’t a problem because they were getting the most respect, but they were stifling up the card economy by holding onto everything. The card aspect of the game worked by getting ‘tips’ (or jobs) to complete using other cards, like baseball bat cards for a stick-up tip, which gave out respect and new cards. The tip cards were never reshuffled into the deck that everyone drew from though, so when those two rogue gangsters held onto all the cards, there was no way to get new cards. My first reaction was to try and kill them, but then something funny happened.

I don’t know if it was part of the game, but the person who rewarded us for finishing jobs kinda broke the rules. Without letting Anthony on, she snuck a tip card into my hand. Remember what I said about the flexibility of the rules? Turns out that it ran both ways. This was, for me at least, the best part of Grand City. Here we were, supposed gangsters and kings of organised crime, playing with poker chips and clearly defined rules (for those in the know, at least), but breaking them was totally fair game. Despite the generosity of this corrupt jazz club owner, there was only a few minutes left in the game, and my family’s fate was sealed.

Anthony called time and unveiled which family ruled this town, but he also explained a few other things. His intent is to use the game at something like a dinner event, which sounds spectacular. I can just see a room of well-dressed gangsters eating politely while the evil eye circulates like a family tommy gun. The other thing Anthony mentioned was that he intended for the cards and other items to be used by the players however they wanted, even destroyed. For a social game, destroying valuable items offers a lot of potential for mind messing, but the general response was that this would need to be made abundantly clear to the players from the start.

Regardless of a few opaque rules, everyone thought that Grand City was a great game brimming with potential. It was clear at the end of the night that Anthony had taken a lot from what had happened, and I’m excited to find out what changes are made going forward! Of course, a huge thank you to Carpe Coffee for hosting the event and everyone who helped out running the game! As for the next playup, I’m sure we’ll announce something soon, so stay tuned!

It’s always exciting going hands-on with the latest creative projects from Perth’s best and brightest. But in saying that, there is something especially rewarding in having past games revisit and seeing the evolution that has taken place; in some cases, based directly on feedback received from these sessions. For those who aren’t aware, Playup Perth is a monthly playtesting event, but it also alternates between an all-ages session and an after-dark session – hosted in conjunction with SK Games. Last week, it was Playup’s 4th After Dark event (complete with cheap drinks, of course), where more than 40 people passed through to playtest a variety of video and tabletop games, as well as a unique interactive audio experience that was visiting over from Melbourne. Three of the main games on show had also been featured at past events, and it was clear when speaking with the creators that these sessions had been very helpful.

If you missed out on the event, don’t fret as we’ve so kindly put together a report on each game and how it’s evolved:

Bramblelash

Personally, I’m a big fan of local co-op, so it was fantastic to have Liam and Sam from ByteSprite visiting with us again. Of all the games on show, this was definitely the one which had taken the most influence from the previous session and had seen a massive leap forward in just a number of weeks. If you didn’t get a chance to check it out at either event, basically it’s a game where players work together while linked with a tether to survive waves of enemies and complete objectives. On display this time, though, was an all-new 4-player multiplayer mode which pitted teams of two against each other; which to no surprise was a lot of fun, especially for those already familiar with the game.

Getting a chance to speak with Liam on the night, we chatted about all the updates and new additions to the game. In particular, obstacles was one the most requested features from the last session, so, in the multiplayer mode, we got to see this in the way of pillars that players could get caught on, as well as a patch of brambles in the middle which could only be crossed by players working together to fling the other across using the tether. Popular feedback also included adding in more levels, to which Liam announced on the night that there were now 10 levels planned for the final release. The ambition behind this game has certainly grown quickly, as I was surprised to learn the game would now feature a core adventure mode, with various levels, win conditions and bosses, as well as an endless mode which would be unlocked at the end. I also noted several new enemy designs and a few minor graphical updates too.

For more info on Bramblebash, or to try out the demo, jump on over to the official website: bytespritegames.com

Suburban Encounter (working title)

As a long-time fan of Settlers of Catan, I’m usually pretty keen to go hands-on with any game that involves city building. So, on the night, it’s no surprise I took an interest in Kai Ashford-Hatherly, Kit Matthews and Rob Lemmon new tabletop game, Suburban Encounter. Admittedly, I’m not someone who gets involved in tabletop regularly as my time is mostly focused on video games, but in saying that, I appreciate any game built around solid fundamentals.

To expand upon the premise game, Suburban Encounter is a tile-based game that focuses on competitive building, bidding against other players, teaming up, and, ultimately, trying to build a particular “shape” with your property development in order to win. There are 4 core structures you can build: parks, houses, factories, and shops. At the beginning of each turn, you go into the bidding to build a structure of your choosing, expanding either north, south, east or west. Assuming you have the cash and are unopposed in your direction, you can build. Successfully building can help to earn you more money per turn, and should you position the right structures next to each other, you can combine them to form complexes and then quads. Money is important, because should someone else bid in the same direction, you are going to need to front up the cash or team up with someone else to win that real estate.

Supporting up to 6 players without any complicated setup is always great, and with games that last between 30-45 minutes on average, it’s not something that outstays it’s welcome like a frustrating session of Monopoly. It’s relatively easy to start, given someone experienced is explaining, and it also has a lot of small nuances to facilitate advanced tactics. Being our first playtest session, there were a few stumbling blocks and things still to be tightened up, but overall the game is already showing promise despite only being a collection of coloured cardboard and plastic tokens.

There is no official blog just yet, but you can look forward to it making a return at future Playup events. Stay tuned!

Valiant

Valiant is a game I have personally been following long before it was a VR title. In fact, when I first played it, it was simply titled “Horse Wars.” Oculus Rift integration was just an idea for a feature back then, which is super cool when you think about it as it’s now the leading VR title being developed in Perth and has received a positive interest online from all corners of the globe. To explain Valiant, it is, roughly speaking, a class-based, competitive arena game, with players fighting on horseback. Imagine Chivalry, but riding on horses with lances, swords, and bows and arrows.

Valiant made its public debut as a VR game at the Perth Games Festival last year, and, since that time, the dev team has mostly been focused on polishing the game with improvements to the hud, bug fixes and introducing 3D audio. However, there is still one big challenge the team at Offpeak Games must overcome, and that’s motion sickness. You see, when trying to turn while moving at fast speeds on horseback, the motion of this action starts to confuse your brain as your view and position is shifting quickly, but your body is well aware that it’s not actually moving. Trialing comfort modes has been the biggest step forward for Valiant the past several months, and on the night, the team was playtesting with three different options. Personally speaking, I find the default setting easiest to play, but I do get sick, and I’m not yet convinced on the alternative of manually controlling the camera with quick snaps or drag options. It’s definitely going to be tough to hit a good spot, but I’m confident the team will continue to work hard on getting it right.

On the night, I also got to chat with the lead game designer, Christopher Parkin. While the current version in the polishing stage, Chris was still eager to discuss the potential of new modes which could grow from the current build given the time between now and when the VR audience has grown. Personally, I’m keen to see a PVP jousting mode, as it involves accuracy and charging in a straight line; which not only compliments skill building for the core game, but also isn’t affected by the motion issue. It’s fun to speculate, and we look forward to seeing Valiant again in the future.

If you’d like to follow the game’s progress, or try it out for yourself, you can find more info at: http://valiantgame.com

Flip Flop and Tiny Castles

Eeshwar Rajagopalan is a regular guest on the Playup Roster, who I believe is studying engineering and has an affinity for developing tabletop games which are easy to pick up and play. On the night, Eeshwar had bought back a game we previously tested called “ThirtySix,” but in two new forms: “Flip Flop Numbers” and “Flip Flop Attack.”

To explain, “Numbers” is a 2-player tile placement game that focuses on the strategic positioning of tiles. Basically, you want to place your tiles in a way to flip them and your opponents to come out on top; hence, the title: Flip Flop. “Attack,” on the other hand, is a more fast-paced version where you push, flip and slide your opponents tiles off the board before they can do the same to you. Of the two, Numbers is the most polished version, having evolved from the dice-based ThirtySix at the last Playup. It’s clear that player feedback has strongly influenced Eeshwar to focus in on the fundamentals of the game, and to create a more elegant and simple experience overall. It definitely appears to be moving in a promising direction! Being the first test for Attack, however, it’s evident the variation still requires a little more work to balance the mechanics. We look forward to seeing whether it will find its legs in the coming months.

In addition, a new game called Tiny Castles was also brought along this week, which was a product of Eeshwar’s time spent at the recent Level One Popup Co-Working Space for Game Makers. Essentially, it is a 2-4 player worker placement game where you try and fill up your castle with treasure by stealing it from other player’s castles – while also trying to stop them from stealing from your own castle. Using three unit types: soldiers, thieves, and adventurers, players must try to collect six treasures either by stealing them or adventuring. Overall, feedback indicated the stealing component was well received, either by thieving or attacking the other players castle, but the adventuring component didn’t quite capture the players interest. Eeshwar explained that the next iteration of the game will be focused more heavily on the first two components, so we’re looking forward to seeing how Tiny Castles evolves at future Playups.

And, That’s a Wrap!

As far as the session went, I think it was arguably the most rewarding so far as we had so many games making a return. It gives participants the perception that their feedback can actually make a difference, and that is a truly fantastic thing. It was also really cool that we had two games visiting from over east: “Flaps” and “Broken Sounds.”

Alex Perrin’s “Flaps” is a very elegant and highly competitive game that involves fighting it out as two rival umbrellas, if that can possibly make sense. It was a surprising amount of fun! And then there was “Broken Sounds,” which is the aforementioned interactive audio experience I mentioned. Basically, it involved sitting in a tent with headphones and waving a move controller to explore a randomly generated soundscape. It was definitely “out there” as I’m sure I discovered what sounded like a pig eating cereal and a man and a women “exercising” together. It was good for a laugh, and a great show of creativity from the Melbourne trio, Harrison Smith, Amani Naseem and Lee Shang Lun.

If you have helped to test any of these games, we appreciate your contributions. And, if you’re keen for more, there’s word of a special-edition Playup this month, which you can RSVP for here. But be quick, tickets are very limited!